Matthew Broderick is now a responsible father of three, but 30 years ago he was skipping school, gatecrashing street parades and racing his best friend’s dad’s Ferrari through the streets of Chicago.
Along with flinging the sports car off a hillside, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” catapulted Broderick to fame as the John Hughes comedy became a cult for disgruntled high schoolers who wished they had the guts to play hooky.
The hit film also starred Alan Ruck (as best friend Cameron), Mia Sara (as girlfriend Sloane), Jeffrey Jones (as the school dean), Jennifer Grey (as sister Jeanie) and Charlie Sheen, as what else, but a stoner juvenile delinquent.
Although it was released in the U.S by Paramount on June 11, 1986, Friday has been deemed the official 30-year anniversary of Ferris’ day off after — following an in-depth investigation analyzing who was on the field and how they fared in each inning — BaseballProspectus.com managed to track down the exact Cubs vs. Braves game on June 5, 1985 that Ferris, Sloane and Cameron were watching at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
To celebrate three decades of fans falling in love with Ferris, TheWrap presents five of the film’s most iconic scenes.
And remember, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Ferris’ Opening Monologue
In order to pull off his ninth sick day of the semester, our hero had to come up with something impressive. “If I go for 10, I’m going to have to barf up a lung,” he said in his opening monologue. Ferris then revealed that the keys to faking out parents with an illness are clammy hands and a stomach cramp, before pulling off a killer singing in the shower performance and quoting John Lennon (while repeatedly complaining about not having a car).
Ben Stein Reading Out Roll Call
The most repeated line of this — and possibly any film — comes from Ben Stein as the beleaguered economics teacher as he reads out the roll call in homeroom, repeating “Bueller, Bueller, Bueller” in a deadpan voice. Almost as funny is Kristy Swanson’s longwinded explanation of how she heard through the rumor mill that Ferris had passed out at 51 Flavors the night before.
Cameron Is Persuaded Into Skipping Too
It’s not worth skipping school unless you have a sidekick, so Ferris recruited his best friend and hypochondriac Cameron by dragging him out of his sick bed. Despite professing that he “feels like complete shit,” Bueller tells his pal (while sunbathing by a pool) that “you’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything better to do.”
In Ferris’ defense, he is just trying to stop Cameron from being killed by his future college roommate: “Cameron is so tight, if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you’ll have a diamond.” As we all know, he finally succumbed.
Ferris Performs “Twist and Shout” and Takes Over a Street Parade
After already revealing both his singing skills and his love of The Beatles in the shower scene, Ferris steals the show and hijacks a float during Chicago’s Von Steuben Day Parade. Needless to say, his microphone-twirling performance gets everyone in the street dancing and his dedication to “a young man who doesn’t think he’s seen anything good today,” even wins disgruntled Cameron over.
Jeanie Meets Juvenile Delinquent Charlie Sheen
While waiting in the police station, the last person Ferris’ sister Jeanie (Grey) wants to sit next to is a drug-addled delinquent (Sheen), especially when he tells her that wearing too much eye makeup makes her look like a whore. It goes from bad to worst when he tells Jeanie not only that her problem is with herself rather than her brother, but also that there’s someone she should talk to. “If you say Ferris Bueller, you lose a testicle,” she warns him. “Oh, you know him?” comes the reply.
The Ferrari Takes Flight – Twice
Cameron’s father’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT is his most treasured possession, and a pair of valet guys learned why when they take it for a spin and get it airborne — to the theme of “Star Wars” by John Williams.
Having survived its adventures with the valets with just an overblown odometer, the Ferrari is less fortunate when Ferris gets his hands back on it. With the car propped up on stands and running in reverse to reduce the mileage (high school student logic in an emergency), Cameron props his foot up on the front bumper — and pushes the Ferrari back off a cliff behind his parents’ house and into the trees below. “What did I do?” he asks Ferris and Sloane in a near catatonic state. “You killed the car,” he is informed.